This invention relates to the extraction of desired constituents from minerals and is particularly concerned with the extraction of phosphoric acid and metal values from phosphate rock.
Phosphoric acid is conventionally prepared by a wet process involving the acidulation of phosphate rock with sulphuric acid followed by a liquid/solids separation on the resulting slurry. Appreciable proportions of the desired phosphoric acid and metal values especially uranium, are lost with the solids thus giving poor yields.